Galt animal activists played role in bringing down circus

The oddsmakers wouldn’t have given Pat Derby and Ed Stewart much of a chance.

In one corner was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, a cultural staple for generations, run by a family now worth billions of dollars.

In the other corner were two people from Galt who once scrounged for gas money in the back of their station wagon.

Thirty-three years later, the circus is folding — a remarkable victory for the Galt-based Performing Animal Welfare Society, which Derby and Stewart founded as part of their crusade against animal captivity.

“We had a lot of resistance from the circus,” Stewart recalled on Tuesday. “But we were a little tougher than they thought we were. And nobody was tougher than Pat.”

Pat Derby, a one-time animal trainer in Hollywood, died almost four years ago. She would have been “ecstatic” to hear the news Saturday that the 146-year-old circus was ending, her longtime partner said.

But she would have kept fighting, he added. Ringling Bros. isn’t the only show around.

“She would already be planning the next move,” Stewart said. “There’s still a lot of animals stuck all over the world in pretty bad situations.”

Feld Entertainment Inc., parent company of the circus, said its decision to close was based on high costs coupled with declining ticket sales. In a statement, the company expressed thanks to “hundreds of millions” of customers who had experienced the “joy and wonder” of the circus.

But it is precisely those people — customers — who decided they wanted no more of it, Stewart said.

Animal welfare activists like he and Derby gave them information, new technology spread that information faster than ever, and, in the end, the people themselves decided that the big tent must come down, he said.

There were signs that public opinion had shifted. California officials last year passed a law banning the use of bullhooks, which are used by elephant trainers. Stockton itself considered such a ban at the local level two years earlier.

Stewart credits the fiery Derby, in particular, for helping turn the tide. She pushed lawmakers. She debated circus industry representatives on television.

“She would just destroy people who were opposing her,” Stewart said. “I think that’s the reason we were so effective.”

Today PAWS maintains three sanctuaries for captive wildlife, including elephants, lions, tigers, bears and more. Stewart had just finished taking care of the animals on Saturday night when his phone began lighting up with the news.

“It’s kind of nice that you work that long on something, and everybody remembers that you had a pretty major part of it,” he said.

— Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com. Visit him at recordnet.com/breitlerblog and on Twitter @alexbreitler.